for dessert AND breakfast?! I know. We're crazy.

I've been on cooking/ baking overload lately. My only complaint, the dishes. We finally have a nice dishwasher, but I'm like my mother-in-law. I prefer to do them by hand. I really just need to slap my hand and tell myself to enjoy the luxury of a dishwasher after going so many years without one.

Here's two recipes I baked this past week:

I made an Apple Cinnamon Cobbler. I bought a ridiculous amount of apples. Ridiculous, I tell ya. Like, 4 FULL bags of apples. Gala, Red, and Granny Smith. Why? Because it's fall and apples were ridiculously cheap. 3 pounds for $1? Yes, don't mind me while I impulsively buy lots of apples and then figure out what to do with them all later on.

Apple Cinnamon Cobbler
(Vegan and Gluten free substitutions, sugar free, dairy free)

Ingredients:
8-10 apples (any kind, peeled, cored, & chopped. Peeling the apples was a pain in the neck so the first 3 were beautiful and the rest looked disastrous)
1 tbs cinnamon
1tbs flax meal (optional)
lemon juice from half a lemon
1/4 cup agave
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 honey (or pure maple syrup)
1/3 coconut oil - melted
1.5 cups oats (gluten free)
2 tsp salt (and a little more sprinkled on top after baking)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, mix chopped apples, agave, lemon, cinnamon, and raisins in bowl and spread over 8x11 pan. In small bowl, mix honey until smooth consistency, and then add oats. Pour on top of apples and spread. I slightly mixed it all together instead of keeping oats just on top. Bake 30-40minutes or until apples become tender. Serve warm for dessert and then have next morning for breakfast. I ate it cold this morning and actually preferred it that way. I know. I'm weird. I also doubled the oat mixture to have more of the "crumble" with the apples. My dad came over to babysit on Friday and he had some. He loved it, but he said it needed a little more salt. We sprinkled more on top and he was right, much better. I made an executive decision to make some official alterations to the recipe. Thanks dad! Store in fridge.

Okay, this next recipe, I made last Sunday. And it was supposed to last us the week, but we ended up eating almost the whole dish in one evening. I made it again on Thursdsay, and we have one square left that I set aside for Ryan's lunch tomorrow. These babies go fast in this house.

Chocolate Pumpkin Bars 
(Vegan and Gluten free substitutions, sugar free, dairy free)

Ingredients:
3 cups old fashion oats, gf
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1 can 100% pumpkin puree (15oz)
1/2 cup honey
1/8 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbs cinnamon (or 1/2 tbs cinnamon, 1/2 tbs nutmeg)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 8× 9 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Make oat flour: Place oatmeal into blender or food processor and blend for 1-2 minutes until oatmeal resembles flour. The second time I made this recipe, I made less oat flour and used more full oats (about 1.5 cups of flour, 1.5 cups full oats) to make it more of a granola bar. If you use more oat flour, it turns more into a cake. Place oat flour and remaining oats in a medium bowl. Whisk in baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

In a separate large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, honey, vanilla extract, oil, and applesauce for 1-2 minutes until the consistency is smooth and creamy. You can also add all of these ingredients to the food processor as well. Slowly add in oat flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in 1/5 cup of chocolate chips and dump all that goodness into your pan, and for safe measure, sprinkle on some more chocolate chips. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. 

Best part about these? Another dessert AND breakfast combo. Serve warm out of the oven for dessert or cut them up in bars and wrap individually for breakfast/snack throughout the week. PERECTO! And on a completely unrelated note, aren't these the cutest hind legs you've ever seen? :)

cha-cha-cha-chia

Gosh this kid is so dang cute. I know I'm bias but he REALLY is. It's the facial expressions.... and the hair. 

This weekend was absolutely AMAZING......not! It was the absolute worst!!!! It was one of those weekends where you actually wish Monday would hurry up and rear its ugly head. Those are few and very far in-between. But when you're sick... that happens. I actually started crying from being so tired---- scary flashback from when Lincoln was first brought home. Although this time I had my husband and Lincoln staring at me like, 'why you so emotional woman?' I slept like crap all weekend, my throat was killing me, and allergies, and I wanted some junk food. Not a good time to withhold sweets. I might have popped those cough drops like candy because of the sugar in them. 

But now look, it's Monday, I'm feeling so much better, and now I'd like the weekend to come back. 

And now for an update: Can we get a WOOT! WOOT! ??

Cause we just finished our first week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ryan and I were talking about it yesterday. The good and bad of it all. Here's what we discussed. 

The bad: it is more work. OBVIOUSLY. There is a lot more preparation that goes into everything. If you are out of food, it's not a quick drive to the closest fast food place. It's required detailed grocery lists and meal planning, lots of cutting and preparing and cooking what I can in bulk to have throughout the week. This is the big drawback for me, since I'm the one doing all of it. 

So what's the biggest drawback for Ryan? Yesterday I made pizza-- with a gluten free pizza crust might I add. I asked him what could make it better and you know what he said? It wasn't the crust, he actually thought it tasted good, but the one critique he gave me... it needs meat.

And the good? Ryan has told me he hasn't felt so tired in the mornings. He believes it's from eliminating the soda and aspartame. The headaches he had during the first week have gone away as well. Caffeine withdrawal? We also agreed we haven't felt like complete CRAP from anything we've eaten. We haven't seen any improvement with his joints, but he says he feels really good overall which is a HUGE perk. 

Saturday called for some special pancakes to celebrate the ending of our first week. Delish. 

Why did I think pancakes from scratch were difficult? Because they're definitely not.

Coconut Carrot Pancakes
Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or unbleached all purpose)
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 cup almond milk
1/2 cup grated carrots
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs coconut oil
2 tbs agave
1 tbs cinnamon
pinch of salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add flour, baking powder, sea salt, cinnamon and half of the shredded coconut in a large bowl and whisk to combine. 
2. Pour almond milk into a large liquid measuring cup. Add oil, vanilla, and agave and whisk to combine. Add wet to dry and stir.
3. Stir in carrot and let batter rest for 5 minutes while preheating skillet to medium heat.
4. Once skillet is hot, lightly grease the surface with non-stick spray and spoon on 1/4 cup measurements of batter. 
5. Cook for another couple minutes on the other side. 
6. Serve with warm maple syrup or agave and sprinkle the other half of coconut on top. 

Adapted from Minimalistbaker

thank yous and scones

I feel like I need to start this post off saying thank you to everyone. Since sharing our post on changes we are making with our diet, we've had so many people reaching out. I've had people send me recipes, refer me to certain blogs, sites, and books to read, and sharing their own testimonies of how a healthy change in their diet has helped them with some of their own ailments. So thanks for the help, ideas, and of course, encouragement.

One of my mom's friends called her, after reading our blog, to tell her about someone she knew who had similar symptoms as Ryan's and was later diagnosed with MS. Like I mentioned in our first post, one of the neurologists told us he believed it could be early stages of MS, so hearing someone else having similar symptoms and being diagnosed with MS later on, is no surprise. We know this diagnosis is a possibility. She said her friend had eliminated gluten from her diet, which helped her with her symptoms. Although gluten free wasn't originally on our restrictions, we will continue the rest of our month gluten free after I go shopping Saturday and rearrange a few of the recipes I have planned. :)

Lincoln has done a complete 180 since yesterday. He's back to sleeping throughout the night, but the runny nose is running and there may be a few snot crusties lingering on his face still. His energy is for sure back up because this morning required chasing him around the kitchen, living room, and rescuing him after getting stuck under the kitchen chair AGAIN!

27/52

I always leave his bedroom door open a crack when he's napping. I went up this morning when he started waking up and peeked into his room and watch him talk to himself. He'll pull himself up, fall down, pull himself back up again, all while carrying on his one-way conversation with himself. He cracks me up. I ran downstairs to grab the camera because I wanted to remember this moment. I took the first picture, but then he heard the click from it, so the second captures him saying.... "Who's outside my room?!"

I'm so happy I decided to turn the oven on during our peak hours yesterday to bake these scones. Shhh. That's a secret between you and I, and not for Ryan to know. Why are the peak hours always the most inconvenient time? Either way, an extremely warm kitchen was worth it. I came downstairs this morning, opened up the back patio door (brrr--- windy and rainy), and walked to the kitchen all giddy to eat my scone.

vegan Cinnamon Blueberry scones
adapted from neverhomemaker

ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup large flake oats1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons milk (you can use any milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespon cinnamon
1 cup frozen berries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

2. Place the flours, coconut oil, and honey in a bowl and blend well.

3. Then mix in the cinnamon, salt, flax, and baking soda.

4. Add the milk and vanilla extract; mix until just moistened. Do not over-mix.

5. Fold in the berries. Let sit for a few minutes until chilled by the berries.

6. Scoop the dough onto a clean, well-floured work surface. Loosely shape into a circle and pat down.

7. Cut into wedges and then place on a cookie sheet.

8. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until deep golden brown color. Let cool before serving.

ode to oats

The weather is gracing us with some cool crisp mornings and evenings. The night temperatures have finally lowered enough to open the windows at night. This morning I woke up to a breeze brushing across my face and the sunrise peering through our window. We have an amazing view of downtown from our bedroom window.. except that blasted telephone pole. Whenever I look out to admire the view I always imagine myself going out there with an axe and chopping this pole down. And to top off a beautiful Monday morning, Lincoln slept in. When you have a baby that wakes up like clock-work, those peaceful moments of silence in the morning are golden. I came downstairs to enjoy my breakfast that was waiting for me. Even better. My overnight oats were in the fridge calling my name.

This will be a staple breakfast this month for Ryan and I in all it's variety. Best thing, I can make enough for a few days and all we have to do is grab it out of the fridge and our healthy breakfast just got easy. My pretty pictures can't do it justice.
Here's one of many overnight oats recipes to come: Blueberry Coconut Overnight Oats. Super original name huh? Ha, I'll work on something more creative.

vegan Blueberry Coconut Overnight Oats
Mason jars with lids ( I prepare 4 for the week with wide mouth pint jars)
1 cup Oats 1 cup
1 1/4 cup Almond Coconut Milk 1 1/4 cup
Blueberries as much as your heart desires
Shredded Unsweetened Coconut as much as your heart desires
2 tablespoons Agave 
Vanilla- a dash---yes, that's how I measure things around here
flax & chia seeds- optional

You'll have to experiment but this is what I use. I put a little more agave in Ryan's, of course, with his flax and chia seeds too. And you can adjust milk if you like it more runny. Add it all in your jar, stir, put on lid, and place in fridge overnight. Bam! Easy peasy.